Paul Nicholls recalls being attacked by wild dogs and leeches in near-death experience

Paul Nicholls has dramatically opened up about his near-death experience – in which he was attacked by a group of savage wild dogs resulting in him falling 20ft down a Thai waterfall.

The Ackley Bridge actor was left “screaming in screaming” with a gaping hole in his knee after his part of his knee cap “flew out” when he hit a rock following the horror fall in Koh Samui this summer.

Paul was just hours from death when he was found lying at the bottom of the waterfall with serious injuries and hadn’t eaten or drank for three days.

Speaking on Loose Women on Tuesday, the former EastEnders star said: “It was 6.30am, I’d been in the gym already. I lived halfway up the mountain, I went to the top to take pictures. I came around the corner, there were about 15 wild dogs.

“One pack had made a kill and the blood attracted the rest of them. The nearer I got to the waterfall, one of them chomped on top of my foot. It drew blood and then he ran off with my flip flop.

“I pulled into the waterfall and thought, ‘The only way I can go is down,’ but I didn’t realise how much I was bleeding. As soon as I touched the rock, I just went over.

“It was a 20ft drop and my knee hit something on the way down. It looked like something just flew out of my knee – part of my knee cap – and then I hit the water. Where my knee cap should have been, there was just a hole and I was holding it. I was screaming and screaming.”

While the wound was bad enough, Paul then had to desperately bat away loads of blood-thirsty leeches and crabs as they headed for his knee.

The 38-year-old star added: “This is the worst bit – these things came out of the water. I thought, ‘Those are very big leeches.’ As soon as the blood hit the water these crabs came out … but the leeches were coming out of everywhere.

“I know I wasn’t hallucinating. This was real.”

Paul was found semi-conscious and with hypothermia by a local from a nearby village who spotted his rented motorbike in the jungle and reported it to the emergency services.

It took two hours to take the British actor to nearby International Koh Samui Hospital, before he was transferred and underwent reconstructive surgery on his knee.

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